Tagged: china

Strange noises, flickering lights, and spooky shadows: neighbors to an empty Chinese warehouse were expecting ghosts when they reported their findings to local police. Instead, what authorities discovered after investigating the dilapidated building was a run-down property being discreetly used as a house of ill-repute. Situated in China’s southeast Zhejiang province, witnesses had good reason to suspect supernatural intrigue: the brothel is located next to a haunted cemetery. Upon being alerted to the strange occurrences, Wenzhou police set up a “paranormal” stake out for a few days. Rather than witnessing ghostly entities, all they observed, however, was a peculiarly high...

Are drones leading us to war? Albert Einstein once said that he didn’t know how World War III would be fought, though he did know about World War IV – with sticks and stones. He was warning us that our escalation of nuclear weapons would lead to a war where very little – and very few – were left standing. Today, what would Einstein think of the recent escalation of combat drones? Defense planners argue that drones save lives, sparing those who would’ve had to fight the enemy face to face, or gun-sight to gun-sight. Now, with drones, or UAVs (Unmanned Aerial...

China Exam: Who Do You Love More, Mom or Girlfriend? It sounds like the kind of ethics thought experiment with no happy outcome, but according to China’s national judicial examination, this moral quandary has a “correct” answer. Getting it right is necessary to become a lawyer or judge in China. The question? “If forced to choose, would you save your mother or your girlfriend from a burning building?“ The correct answer? Your mother, of course. According to the BBC, China’s Minister of Justice declared that test-takers are, “Duty-bound to save their mothers.” He went on to call shirking your familial duties...

Spy Satellite Tech Now Cheaper Than Ever This July, a scheduled rocket launch served as the cover for the secret deployment of the Carbonite-1, a new low-cost imaging satellite. Using off-the-shelf cameras and telescopes, the Carbonite-1 is designed to orbit the Earth at a distance of 500km, capturing stunning images of the planet at 1-meter ground resolution. The satellite’s manufacturer, SSTL, envisions a web of cheap Carbonite satellites orbiting the globe but does this bold vision of the future spell an end to our terrestrial privacy rights? Traditional satellites cost tens of millions, sometimes up to $1 billion to build and launch. SSTL...

Will UK Approve Genetic Modification of Human Embryos? Genetic modification. Designer babies. Stem cell research. These are all hot-button topics throughout the world, and the debate is about to get hotter, thanks to a team of British scientists from London’s Francis Crick Institute. Dr. Kathy Niakan, stem cell scientist at the Institute, has filed a request with the U.K. Human Fertilizaton and Embryology Authority (HFEA) seeking approval to genetically modify human embryos that have been donated after IVF treatments rendered a surplus, reports The Guardian. Strictly for Research Dr. Niakan and her team said their main goal is to research...

Only mere weeks after the devastating explosion in the port city of Tianjin, a fourth chemical plant in China has gone up in flames, this time in the eastern province of Zhejiang, in Lishui city. The chemical plant, as of now housing unknown pollutants, was destroyed shaking more than just the surrounding structures’ foundations. For a country still trying to recover from the Aug. 12 explosions in Tianjin that killed at least 160 people and rattled the political landscape of the communist state, this new explosion, being the 4th chemical plant/storage facility destroyed in just under a month, certainly strikes one as an odd...

Is there an “Alien Base” on the Moon? More and more people are coming forward with stories that might prove this is true. Rumors say that there is an Alien Moon Base on the far side of the moon, the side we never see from Earth. Did you ever wonder why the Moon landings stopped and why we have not tried to build a Moon Base? It does seem like a better and easier idea than a floating space station with no access to any raw materials or supplies? China has released what they say is moon footage of alien...

In the event of a zombie apocalypse, it’s imperative that you have a plan. If you’re influenced by the movies, then you might be inclined to take your chances and head for the nearest pub or shopping mall in order to outwit a growing horde of bloodthirsty zombies. Your average shopping mall is equipped with all […]

Nobody has ever put a lander on the far side of the Moon before, but China is well on its way to being the first. Over the weekend, the country launched a craft called Queqiao – a satellite that will orbit the Moon to relay messages from the yet-to-be-launched lander, Chang’e-4. The Moon is tidally […]

It only lasted for a savage, fleeting instant, but for 8 intense seconds last week an eagle, a fox, and a rabbit flew across the sky as one. In an incredibly rare scene, photographers have captured the moment a bald eagle swooped down upon a young red fox clutching a rabbit, and in its whirlwind […]

There is something special and awe-inspiring about watching new land form. This is what is now happening in Hawai’i as its Kīlauea volcano erupts. Lava is reaching the ocean and building land while producing spectacular plumes of steam. These eruptions are hugely important for the creation of new land. But they are also dangerous. Where […]

Calling all citizen scientists! A project looking for those dying, exploding stars called supernovae out in deep space is also searching for volunteers to help in the work, and you can get real science credit for it along the way – even if you’ve never done a second of star-gazing before. Astronomers from the Australian National […]

When Jean-Lou Justine received the first photograph of a giant worm with a head like a shovel, the biologist was astounded. Hammerhead flatworms, which grow to a foot or more in length, do not belong in European vegetable gardens. “We do not have that in France,” said Justine, a professor at the National Museum of […]

Astronauts go through many physiological changes during their time in spaceflight, including lower muscle mass and slower muscle development. Similar symptoms can occur in the muscles of people on Earth’s surface, too. In fact, it could affect everyone to some extent later in life. “Age-related skeletal muscle disorders, such as sarcopenia, are becoming a greater […]

Exposure to early life trauma can lead to poor physical and mental health in some individuals, which can be passed on to their children. Studies in mice show that at least some of the effects of stress can be transmitted to offspring via environmentally-induced changes in sperm miRNA levels. A new epigenetics study raises the […]

Most renderings and reconstructions of pterodactyls and other extinct flying reptiles show a flight pose much like that of bats, which fly with their hind limbs splayed wide apart. But a new method for inferring how ancient animals might have moved their joints suggests that pterosaurs probably couldn’t strike that pose. “Most of the work […]

Corals growing in high-latitude reefs in Western Australia can regulate their internal chemistry to promote growth under cooler temperatures, according to new research at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at The University of Western Australia. The study, published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests that ocean warming may […]